Day 182
6 hrs, 10 .0 kms

Next morning I wake up in Madrid where I plan to do my 4th Superhike in less than 3 weeks. Like Sevilla and Lisbon, Madrid is a city that I've already explored quite a bit--I just need to give it another 2 days or so to make this a Superhike.

This time I won't be wandering the city all night as I did on my stopover going from Morocco to the USA in 2011. I check into a lively hostel in the heart of the city, then quickly head out to rack up more foot miles.

First destination: Southeast. There are 4 suburb within a short walking distance of each other, hopefully I can do them all in a day.

A couple more interesting things along the way... a narrow street in historical Madrid lined with clothes shops run by South Asians... what looks like a the ruins of a cathedral from outside, but inside is a beautiful library with a glass ceiling to fill in where the former ceiling is missing...

Interesting concept: rather then replace or rebuild a ruined building, just work around it and blend the old with the new...

Finally historical Madrid fades away, and the long rows of identical apartment buildings begin... and then, finally, these fade away, and I find myself walking alongside a semi-freeway across the dreary semi-industrial plains surrounding the city.